London Calling
One of The Clash’s most stinging political statements is, at its core, a song about Joe Strummer’s own fear of drowning rather than a song about the state of British politics. Mick Jones cited the band’s concern about a 1979 London Evening Standard headline about the Thames River overflowing and drowning London in a dissection of “London Calling” published by the Wall Street Journal. What was the reaction of The Clash to the news? “We flipped,” according to Jones.
London Calling
Blackbird
Whilst on radio with Santa Monica radio station KCRW, Paul McCartney revealed how [Blackbird] “It’s not really about a blackbird whose wings are broken, you know, it’s a bit more symbolic.” In a 2008 interview with Mojo, McCartney explained how enamored The Beatles were with the Civil Rights Movement taking place on the other side of the Atlantic. “I got the idea of using a blackbird as a symbol for a Black person. It wasn’t necessarily a black ‘bird,’ but it works that way, as much as then you called girls ‘birds’… it wasn’t exactly an ornithology ditty; it was purely symbolic.”
Blackbird